A brief guide on how to use PPMs to magnify your player’s strength

I’m writing this brief guide to try and show you which PPMs are best for your players, and how to use them. The knowledge is basically from observation as to what has worked for me.

Player Preferred Moves, or PPMs don’t actually do anything to your players. It does not make them better passers, dribblers, or tacklers. What it can do is to encourage your players to do certain things more often – if they’re bad passers, you can tell them to play simpler passes. If they’re bad dribblers, you can tell them not to run with the ball. By doing so, you can minimize their weaknesses and maximize their strengths.

You can teach your players to practice these PPMs by interacting with them, there should be options where you can encourage them to train certain moves. They may or may not agree with you, especially if they are more mature players who have grown into a certain style of play. Best to teach them while they’re still young. This is a guess, but I do think that versatility (a hidden player attribute) will affect their willingness and capacity to learn certain things.

PPMs take about 6 months to learn. If you find that you don’t have the option to use PPMs, they might already be learning one, or they may be currently being tutored by another player (can’t do both at the same time).

Certain PPMs are not teachable, they can only be learned through tutoring from older players. Some of these would be curls ball, arrives late in opponent’s area, argues with officials, dwells on ball. But I will leave it to a tutoring guide to teach you how to do that. These can, however, be un-learned. So it’s best to encourage players to unlearn the bad PPMs like arguing with officials which really don’t have any upside on their game.

So the following are certain combinations of PPMs which I find work well in a certain player role, and I do indicate what attributes are important for executing those PPMs, as well as give examples of players that would do well with these moves. It should be pretty self explanatory.

For fast strikers: Move into channels, likes to round keeper, places shots, tries to beat offside traps?.

Move into channels – High acceleration and pace necessary to get onto those throughballs and carry them to goal.

Likes to round keeper – High agility, balance and I think also dribbling and flair helps in getting around the keeper.

Places shots – Good finishing and composure for getting the ball right into the net.

Tries to beat offside trap – He definitely needs good decision and anticipation to make this one worthwhile, I have never used it to much success but may be useful in getting that extra yard past his marker. Use with caution though as he can end up killing off your chances.

e.g. David Villa, Jermain Defoe

For powerful strikers: Tries first time shots, blasts ball into back of net

First time shots – First touch and finishing, as well as balance for scoring those tough volleys. Maybe decisions too as you want him to pick his chances well.

Blasts ball – Finishing, strength for more power in getting the ball firmly in the net before the keeper can react.

e.g. Andre Pierre Gignac, Wayne Rooney

For AMC: Plays killer balls often, gets ball forward when possible, comes deep to get ball

Plays killer balls – Good creativity and decisions, as well as passing and technique. Can be deadly for those playmaker types.

Gets forward when possible – Dribbling, flair, agility, balance, strength, finishing all very useful as this encourages him to get forward into more dangerous positions, rather than making a pussy possession pass backwards.

Comes deep to get ball – This will increase his time on the ball and provide him the option to play the long ball and the short, this means he has to run around more though so stamina is useful if you want him to last the match. If he is the slow, technical type, encourage him to run with the ball less and don’t allow him to roam from position.

e.g. Steven Gerrard, Cesc Fabregas, Kaka

For DMC: Marks opponents tightly, holds up ball, play simple passing game?, looks for pass rather than attempting to score

Marks opponent – High concentration, marking (obviously), and strength and tackling helps too for winning the ball. Positioning and anticipation will help as well as determination to not let his man get past him.

Holds up ball – Lets the attacking and creative members of your squad get into a good position while throwing mixing up the tempo. High strength and balance needed for fending off those pesky closing midfielders.

Plays simple passes – Useful if he is not so technically inclined and you are playing him as an anchor man type. However, if he has good passing and creativity like Andrea Pirlo, you wouldn’t want to waste the talent so make the choice depending on the player.

Looks for pass – Passing, balance and first touch are important in setting up the more adept finishers on his team. If you don’t mind him trying long shots

e.g. Esteban Cambiasso, Javier Mascherano, Lassana Diarra

For wingers: Hugs touchline/cuts inside, dribbles down respective flank, gets forward whenever possible, runs with ball often

Hugs touchline/cuts inside - Depending on where your winger is more deadly, on the inside or on the flank. Accleration, pace, agility and balance are key to running down the flank, and crossing is very important to feed it back to your strikers. If he has good decisions, creativity, passing and finishing, cutting inside can be very threatening to your opponents.

Dribbles down flank + Gets forward whenever possible – Encourages your winger to beat his man using his skill. Obviously good dribbling and flair is the key here, as well as agility, balance and acceleration to get that extra half a yard to cross.

Runs with ball often – Only if you think your winger can be threatening, if not then don’t use this as he may waste the possession out wide when there are better options inside.

e.g. Cristiano Ronaldo, Alexis Sanchez, David Silva

If you guys disagree or feel that certain things should be added feel free to offer your advice, I’m no expert but I hope this information will be useful to you.

One PPM I’ve never experimented with: lobs ball past keeper, if you have any experience with using this on your striker, do share.

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